Trump’s sudden firing Tuesday morning of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stunned lawmakers in both parties, even those who thought they had gotten used to the president’s frenetic style. There was no heads-up from the White House that Tillerson’s ouster was coming. Senior Republicans thought Trump and Tillerson had achieved a decent working relationship in recent months, although there was clearly no love for the former ExxonMobil CEO coming from the Oval Office.

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It’s the latest reminder that Trump has his own plans,and the rest of the party is just going to have to deal with it, no matter how awkward the timing.

GOP congressional leaders are focused on finishing work on a massive spending bill to keep the government running for the rest of the fiscal year and then hope to turn to the battle for control of Congress. But the looming confirmation process for Trump's new nomineesensures that senators will instead spend weeks publicly debating his policies on Russia, Iran and North Korea, as well as reliving previous fights over terror detainees and allegations of torture by the CIA.

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"It adds to our workload, that's for sure," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). "I don't view it as a problem. It's just business that we have to take care of."

Cornyn and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are already pushing for a "quick confirmation" of CIA Director Mike Pompeo to succeed Tillerson. Trump has tapped Gina Haspel, the deputy CIA director, to succeed Pompeo. Haspel‘s role in a hugely controversial CIA interrogation program will be a key part of her confirmation hearing. If confirmed, she would be the first woman to hold that post.

The spectacle of Tillerson being fired via Twitter — Tillerson himself said he didn't speak to Trump until three hours after the president tweeted about it — was too much for many Democrats, who view Trump's Washington as an unending series of scandals, missteps and controversies with no cohesive rhyme or rhythm. If there is a method to Trump's madness, Democrats don't see it.

“President Trump has demonstrated yet again that he is the commander in chaos,” said Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who, as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will play a key role in Pompeo's confirmation hearings.

Menendez — recently acquitted on federal bribery charges and now running hard for reelection — was noncommittal on whether he would oppose Pompeo’s confirmation as the 70th secretary of state. Menendez voted against Pompeo for CIA director last year. Overall, 31 Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, opposed Pompeo’s ascension to head of the CIA.

“The question is that being the CIA director is one skill set, while being secretary of state is another,” Menendez said.

Liberal Democrats and progressive groups are already teeing off on Pompeo’s selection, saying he has not done enough to highlight Russian interference in the 2016 election, among other shortcomings.

Although Democrats will have a hard time derailing Pompeo’s bid, given his lack of opposition from a GOP that knows him well from his years in the House, he’s likely to face a far more partisan confirmation vote than Tillerson did.

“If he’s being hired simply to more efficiently destroy the State Department, I think it would be hard to get Democratic votes,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters.

Yet some red-state Democrats, especially those up for reelection this November, signaled they are open to backing Pompeo’s nomination. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) noted that he voted for Pompeo for CIA director and said he has had good interactions with him as an Intelligence Committee member.

Haspel is coming under intense criticism from Democrats over her role in overseeing the agency’s interrogation program for terror detainees, including allegedly destroying videotapes of the interrogations of two suspects.

“Ms. Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement.“Her nomination must include total transparency about this background, which I called for more than a year ago when she was appointed deputy director. If Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of U.S. intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past.”

However, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who oversaw an Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s interrogation program, said she has not ruled out voting for Haspel.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has had his own love-hate relationship with Trump, said he was given no warning on Tillerson’s firing, despite the fact that he talked to the president on Friday.

“I found out about it the way I find out about a lot of things — from you all,” Corker told reporters. “I had felt to a degree there had been a reprieve of some kind [in the Trump-Tillerson relationship], since about the first of December, relative to how they were working together. … This president is very entrepreneurial the way he goes about things. … It’s understandable there would be differences there.”

Tillerson had been scheduled to appear before the Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday to discuss the State Department's fiscal 2019 budget request.

Corker, who was close to Tillerson, didn’t say whether he’d support Pompeo, although it would be astonishing if Senate Republicans don't back his nomination.

"I don't know Pompeo very well. I know his background; our lanes have just not crossed," Corker added. "He's gonna come over later this week, and we'll sit down and talk some."

Tillerson may not have been loved by Trump, who could never seem to get used to his style, but Tillerson definitely had his supporters on Capitol Hill. Tillerson liked process, and that’s something lawmakers understand at a deep level.

"I like Rex Tillerson. I think he did a very good job," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). "But it was clear the chemistry wasn't there with the president. And I don't know that using the word ‘fired‘ is right. I think it's a mutual decision."